Posts Tagged ‘Abraham Lincoln’

and how will YOU be celebrating tomorrow’s presidential holiday? mutton? hard-bop?

February 17, 2013

It’s true, George Washington did indeed seem to innately understand the ritual importance of wine, the conventional purity of wine, the canonical vitality of wine …

My manner of living is plain and I do not mean to be put out of it. A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready

And it seems to be rather unimpeachably true that it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln’s tenure in the White House that wine was “officially” served at an Official White House function (we appear to actually have Mary Todd Lincoln to thank for that!).

But truth be told, if you REALLY wish to celebrate tomorrow, you REALLY ought to plan on drinking wine and listening to the great saxophonist Harold Land.

Because he was born February 18th. And that’s tomorrow.

So, wanna REALLY get yer Jazz & Wine bona fides on?

Then take a moment tomorrow to sit with a glass of good wine and dig “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” as performed by the  Harold Land-Carmell Jones Quintet; one of the most brilliant and most woefully under-celebrated jazz ensembles ever to emerge from the bop-hard bop idiom.

Land_Jones_Wine

Hey! Here’s an idea! Don’t sit at home, come join us!

That’s right, I personally invite you to contact our Monte Bello Estate, and request a tasting. Call early enough tomorrow, and we can try and slot you in at 11am. Too early? Ok, how’s 2pm sound? Good? Good!

Hey, here’s an even better idea; book online RIGHT NOW! (see link below). 

But whatever you do, remember, Monte Bello is BY APPOINTMENT ONLY on weekdays, so even though it’s a holiday, Presidents Day still counts as a weekday, which means you still need an appointment!

Wine, Harold Land, you, me, the Presidents … groovy.

~

And for those of you who can’t get to our mountain, have no fear, Lytton Springs is here! 7 days a week in Sonoma! You just GOT to have a go! (See link below!)

~

One nation, under jazz, with cabernet and grooviness for all.

~

Visit Monte Bello

Visit Lytton Springs

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Posted in Cabernet Sauvignon, History, Lytton Springs, Monte Bello, Special Offerings, Tasting Events/Opportunities, Tasting Rooms, Wine & Music, Wine and Jazz | Leave a Comment »

Something Special To Celebrate This New Year’s Eve: The Emancipation Proclamation

December 29, 2012

I spent a great many years as a professional songwriter and musician, and have now been in the wine business for a fair amount of years as well. And in both lives, New Year’s Eve looms large.

For a musician, the night is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you HAVE to gig. It’s the best pay of the year. You can often make in a single night what you’d make in a month otherwise. But on the other hand, it’s the worst gig of the year; everyone is loaded, and behaving like … well, you get the idea.

For those of us in the drinks business, the New Year’s Eve conversations tend to all be about … well, drinking.

What to drink, where to drink, when to drink, with whom to drink, how much to drink, etc.

There also tends to be the requisite reconciliations of lament and hope, regret and redoublement, burial and birth, farewell and hello, the old and the new.

Truth be told, we’ve been raising cups of kindness for auld lang syne since long before even ol’ Robert Burns penned his immortal verses.

All of which is alright, I suppose, to a point.

But if you’re interested in tapping a different wellspring of celebration this New Year’s Eve, you might consider the Emancipation Proclamation, and Watch Night.

January 1st, 2013, will mark the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation’s issuance, making this New Year’s Eve the 150th anniversary of a Watch Night like no other.

Watch Night itself technically predates that deeply anticipatory eve back in 1892; it ostensibly began in 1740, inaugurated by the Reverend John Wesley — founder of the Methodist Church — as a spiritual alternative to the holiday debauchment already so de rigueur.

But the night took on a far deeper significance in 1862, when Black Americans in all corners of the young and tortured country waited through the night for news that they were going to be free.

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free …

No, the Emancicpation Proclamation did not officially end slavery. The 13th Amendment did that in 1865. But what it did do was clearly tell a brutally suppressed, oppressed, and enslaved people that their country believed in their freedom, and would see it realized.

So this New Year’s Eve, among the many toasts you raise, you might wish to include one to freedom.

And then one to the spirits of those brave enough and noble enough and kind enough and courageous enough and humane enough and true enough and pure enough and deep enough and real enough to recognize that we are all one, and that no system of governance should exist in immoral defiance of this truth.

And then raise one to the better angels within yourself; that you too might enact this truth in every moment of your life.

We are all one.

–

To read the full Emancipation Proclamation, please click here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1549t.html

514_pg01

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Posted in History, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine & Spirituality, Wine & The Holidays | 2 Comments »

Did Wine End Slavery?

July 10, 2012

Did wine end slavery?

Well, possibly a stretch to suggest it, but upon closer inspection, maybe not!

Stephen A. Douglas

If you’re familiar with Stephen A. Douglas, you might recall that he was (arguably) the primary architect of, and perhaps more importantly, the primary “broker” of, what has come to be known as The Compromise of 1850, a very significant event in the progress towards slavery’s eventual abolishment in this country. The so-called “Compromise” staved off secession and war between the North and the South for many more years, which allowed the North to continue to industrialize (a hugely significant factor as regards the North’s eventual triumph), and also provided for California’s admission to the Union as a “free” state.

California, 1850

And how did Mr. Douglas accomplish this important compromise? Per a fascinating new book by Fergus M. Bordewich entitled America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union, it was wine that did it!

Per Bordewich, Douglas relied, for the achievement of his ends, “less on grandiloquence than on tireless, mostly unrecorded negotiations, which were carried out as often as not over copious cups of wine.”

Aha!

However, history buffs amongst you may recall that Mr. Douglas, courtesy of his overriding faith in the concept of Popular Sovereignty (essentially the idea that “the state” is dependent upon the will of its people; put another way, the idea that citizens should have the right to decide collectively the terms and laws under which they wish to live), would go on to rather sabotage his achievements in The Compromise, by pushing through The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which regrettably resulted in the return of legal slavery to the area that became Kansas with passage of the act. Mr. Douglas’ abiding faith in Popular Sovereignty essentially backfired in this case, as “the people” went in quite the opposite direction of what might have been hoped for; that is to say, they went “slave” instead of “free.” And while Kansas and Nebraska would both eventually be admitted to the Union as “free” states, the damage, for the time being, was most certainly done.

However, the road to slavery’s end continued!

Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act led directly to the creation of the Republican Party, who elected their first president in the person of … Abraham Lincoln! The man who presided over the official end of slavery! In fact, it was his debates with Stephen A. Douglas (including the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1868) that Lincoln first and possibly best articulated the stance that would become his crowning achievement, his opposition to slavery.

Abraham Lincoln

So, basically, it goes like this.

Wine = Compromise of 1850.

Comprise of 1850 = Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 = Birth of Republican Party

Birth of Republican Party = Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln = End of Slavery.

Thus, wine ended slavery.

Obviously.

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Posted in History, Viticultural Salmagundi | 1 Comment »

SF MOMA: How Wine Became Modern …

January 10, 2011

Depending on your current knowledge of exhibitions in the San Francisco museum community, you may or may not know that there is a rather fine and wine-centric show currently on at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art entitled “How Wine Became Modern.”

Here is the exhibit in SFMOMA’s words:

How Wine Became Modern explores the visual culture of wine and its stunning transformation over the last three decades. Designed in collaboration with renowned architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the exhibition combines historical artifacts, architectural models, design objects, newly commissioned artworks, and enticing installations, including a “smell wall,” to probe many aspects of wine culture, among them: the globalization of wine; concepts of terroir; wine in popular media; new strategies in label, glassware, and winery design; and wine tourism.

One of our wonderful Regional Sales Managers, Dan Buckler, recently attended the exhibit, and sent us the following quote from our very own Paul Draper; a quote Dan discovered encased in glass as part of a winemaking practices display:

“In California for at least the last ten or fifteen years we have heard that the wines are now made in the vineyards. What is not mentioned is that in most cases they are then remade in the winery” — Paul Draper

If the implication and inference is not quite clear as regards where Ridge stands, here is Paul on our Monte Bello Vineyard:

Monte Bello is first and foremost a wine of place. That place – high atop the Santa Cruz Mountains underlain by decomposing limestone and Franciscan rock – produces a wine unlike any other. It is our belief that this vineyard with its very low yielding vines (less than two tons per acre) is capable of creating a wine of great significance, depth, complexity and aging potential – but only if we take care in sustaining it. Our vineyard practices, therefore, do not intervene; rather they use and preserve the existing eco-system through techniques such as sowing cover crops and utilizing integrated pest management to nurture and protect the vines. We do not add anything to the vineyard that is not natural.

All of which calls to mind a comment that recently came through to our blog in response to our Year In (Visual) Review post, an excerpt of which reads as follows:

please may we belatedly insert the gleaming thread that was the visual artist Louise Bourgeois? she passed away at age 98 in May of last year, though her work and ideas remain with us. she was outspoken and intelligent, and i like to view much of what she said through the lens of artists in general (be it painters, writers, or yes, a certain class of winemakers):

“art is manipulation without intervention”
“i am not what i am, i am what i do with my hands”
“art is a guarantee of sanity” (i believe this last pertains not only to the making of art, but also to the partaking of it!)

Art is manipulation without intervention.

I don’t know as I’ve heard a better mantra; for wine, for art, for life. Safe travels to you, Louise Bourgeois, and bless you for your wisdom.

And thank you to you “Stella” for calling our attention both to this great artist’s passing, and to the parallel visions at work.

And to you Dan Buckler, for alerting us to Paul’s great quote.

And thank you to you Paul Draper, and all at Ridge, for pursuing the ethical path, the artist’s path, the only path.

To quote Abraham Lincoln (from a poster that hangs on an office wall here at Monte Bello)

on the subject of Ethics:

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

No coincidence, methinks, that Lincoln should ground ethics in place.

 

…Monte Bello is first and foremost a wine of place …

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Posted in Events & Photographs, History, Monte Bello, Paul Draper, Vineyards and Oenology, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Tales, Winemaking | Leave a Comment »

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